The Day of the Dollar

Do we live on a bubble? Is it possible for the heavily indebted American economy to collapse and take all of us down in a free fall with it? Have the days of the dollar been counted? Is it really unimaginable that we will see the time of the Great Depression repeating itself?

VPRO Backlight and Dutch national newspaper NRC Handelsblad present this 'what if' scenario. What if the dollar collapses? Fiction meets facts in this 24 hour scenario. At 9AM a Singapore trader is ordered to sell a large amount of dollars, which sends off the enormous downfall of the dollar.

This film shows the results for the world economy every following hour. It ends in Amsterdam, where the only currency accepted by a taxi driver is cigarettes...

History seems to have caught up with this 2005 film, though in slow-motion... Includes interview with annalist Stephen Roach, Andy Xie, Maarten Schinkel, Cees Maas, Rob de Wijk and Kees Vendrik.

57 Comments / User Reviews

eric

this very likely is going to happen, and is being sustained from occurring by china and central banking however it is inevitable if you actually look at it, USA is a wasteful country, and the economic troubles in the world has irrefutably to do with the way we are living, which is creating economic and all uncertainties, and with such instability, waring countries, the future looks grim; we have to see that we are all responsible not passing the blame to banks, politicians or property owners as that was happening during the banking failure in USA

Seattle

I'm always amazed when I see people who think it's somehow impossible for the dollar to collapse. NOTHING lasts forever and anything is possible. We're really testing the limits.

CSRealist

This is eerie in its accuracy. This film outlined our troubles to the "T"..right up to central banks pumping cash into economies to maintain stability. Angry at the idiocy of America...but understanding in the understanding of this being characteristic to being human. Live excessively until disciplined.

Mossy Heneberry

All Fiat currencies eventually fail and the daollar will be no different.

Big Dipper

The fall of the dollar does not necessarily mean the fall of the USA in relation to other nations. Indeed, there are many things other than the dollar that makes a country economically powerful. For a start, we have the resources to be food and energy independent, should we choose. We have fertile lands, rain, and sun, wind, tides, and yes, for a while, we have oil and gas. We also have a relatively civil community in tune to capitalist economic requirements. Not many can say that.

The USA used to be able to say they had a solid regional infrastructure, but that now is no longer the case, due to neglect, and the fact that other world nations have caught up in terms of technological innovation and implementation, as well as the USA having to feed and house more and more resident passport holders.

But now the rest of the world has also caught up with the USA's idiocy, and they too have fiat currency fractional reserve banking. To maintain that system, the people need to continually spend money they don't have, on things they do not need, and that my dear friends, is something ingrained into the DNA of the USA, more so than any other country. Regardless of how stupid this is long term, in the short term we are better suited to punch our way out of this than many other nations. We have encouraged the rest of the world to follow our lead in a stupid game I think we will win. Rather, we will all lose, but I think we will lose last (if that makes sense). But yes, fractional reserve banking is total nonsense as a long term system, as it will always systemically collapse in on itself, as the interest will end up eating the principal. How it systemically plays out as it collapses is more important than whether it will. It will, we know that, we just do not know when, or how.

Either way, there is a nice yummy lollipop for anyone who can talk me through a system of fiat currency that has a record of not crashing very rapidly. This fiat currency has lasted 97 years so far, which is quite some time, but we are also getting great international reach with our fiat currency, more than ever before in economic history. As a result, there is a lot more wood to burn than in previous historical fiat currencies before the fire extinguishes itself, so maybe it has more legs. It is indeed, the international aspect of this crisis that makes it unique in comparison to other previous fiat currencies, and is why some people believe that the solution will first be a world currency, initially introduced alongside existing currencies, before the entire system crashes. This has huge implications in terms of political control, and it is here where it will play out. The USA has some big trump cards in this arena.

In the days of non fiat currency, we also had copious amounts of war. Todays modern 20th century conflicts are rare, but devastating when they happen, as they are always funded by central bankers with copious amounts of money, printed out of nothing, and of no risk to the issuer. Previously in history, conflicts were in general much more numerous, but tended to involve smaller numbers of casulaties, as there was less money to borrow, as the issuer had to take a level of risk, and issue money fractionally reserved by gold or something similarly stable. Equally, as money was backed by true resources, fighting wars was similar to insuring one's assets. In todays 6 billion population, we frown on war and conflict. If we hadn't, we would not be at 6 billion people. But older societies did not see war as such an unnatural part of life. Unpleasant, yes, but unnatural, no. Indeed, in Europe for a time, it was never citizens who fought or became caught up, but just armies. They used to line them up in respectful formation in fields, and big bright red "easy to see" uniforms and fight it "mano a mano". People were even allowed to spectate politely from afar.

My point is that in the days where we utilized a supported non fiat currency, with gold and precious metals, we also had continuous regional conflicts, and a well honed military was considered every bit as powerful and essential to the running of a sound economic system. It just was.

The USA has such a huge military, that regardless of whether they come in peace or not, it simply cannot be overlooked as something that will not play a part in greatly influencing how the world will sort itself out from this calamity of spending our children's unearned money, on items we do not need, to maintain the systemic robbery of our true assets by criminal banker overlords - namely our labor.

Japan have an enormous economy. Massive. However, it is not remotely as powerful as the USA, mainly because the USA has a military, and they don't. Between them, they are massive economies, both of which are in dire economic calamity. With a military, the USA can make oil money in PETRO Dollars, as an example. Japan could never achieve that influence. They don't have the ability to aggressively coerce. We do.

No-one is saying it is going to be nice, but as always, the USA will bring a gun to the knife fight. With over 50% of the worlds military spending taking place at home, and with so much international reach with our defense contractors overseas, as well as military bases, we can't simply be ignored as not being able to influence world events to our favor.

Remember that money is an illusion. Resources and control of labor is what real money is. The rest is smoke and mirrors.

Stock cash and a little physical gold in small units. Don't trust the banks with anything more than is necessary. Keep food for 6 months, and fuel. And remember that the FDIC has no money whatsoever to cover funds for insurance. They just don't. At all. Whatsoever. It is written down in the ledger. But even so, this doesn't seem to bother the confused and giddy stupid masses. Just like we don't care if Fort Knox hasn't been audited for 30+ years. Basically, they are insuring your money with nothing than just words and hot political air. They also control the politicians too. If they don't get on side, they don't get their faux printed money to spend on themselves and their pet projects. So we don't get it, and the politicians are paid to make sure that stays the same.

Finally. Economics is simple but harsh. A great economic law is "That which cannot continue, will not". Easy to read, but seemingly difficult to comprehend. The day we abolish the FED for good, and return to true free market sound currency, we will see economic prosperity break out everywhere, like we did in the 1870's when Lincoln introduced the Greenback. If we no longer need to pay greedy middle men vast sums of our wealth for the privilege of having a currency, we will all feel richer overnight. Currency oversight and provision is the governments role, by terms of the constitution, not the role of monopolistic private bankers.

But they are too powerful, they control the media, they control what you hear, and manipulate your money so that you believe they are in your best interests. They control our resources, and our lives.

The ultimate conclusion of an all powerful central bank, issuing our currency at will with no resources to prop it up, is open slavery for all, authorized by greedy governments easily bought up for peanuts. To illustrate, let's look at definitions. Slavery is nothing more than free labor. Under slavery, the slave has to give a portion, or all of his labor, for nothing in return to another party, generally under duress. The economics of it used to work like thus. A plantation worker would buy the slave. So the plantation worker did pay, but the payment went to the slave owner who has assumed the ownership of the slaves labor. That slave was then contracted to work, in exchange for food, shelter and clothing. If he didn't work, life was terrible, but if they gave good service, in many cases they were given their freedom after 25 years. Of course, they had nowhere to go on the whole, and chose to continue but those arrangements were in place. However, the arrangement is that the slave is assumed to be born into debt, the debt of which is his labor that he must give. Since he has no money, he can only work that debt off. It was not his choice to go into slavery as an individual, it was coerced.

Now, what of our grandchildren? They are not even born yet, but even so, before they are born, it is written down now, today, already, that a portion of their labor has to go to pay interest to bankers of fiat currency, which would have already been spent a long time ago. In otherwords, one party has to pay a debt of labor to another party, not of their free will or choice, and the other not paying at all for that labor. By the time our grandchildren are born, about 50% of all our earnings will go to pay interest to rich bankers who create money from nothing, if things do not change from today. Stop and think about that.

If this is not a definition of slavery, then I have no idea what is. The difference today, is its method and scale. Rather than choose a few black guys to steal from, we are choosing a nation. And rather than the operators of the slave trade doing the bidding for the control of that labor, we have the government doing the bidding of the bankers. If we were to take the slave trader out of the equation (the central bank), then the slave would be free to negotiate his own contract and receive the legal payment for the value of his labor. Basically, he would own his personal labor once more.

Remember the days when governments could only spend what we let them? Remember the days where taxes used to be the main voting issue? Today, they all pretty much have a similar tax policy. Why? It is no longer that important to short term ambitious politicians because they just borrow it on your behalf instead, at huge interest, without asking you publicly, from the banks who are more than ready to give it to them. After all, it is money for nothing for them, and guarantees them future percentages of our children's earnings. I mean, why ask the people for their money - that never works. Just take it from them and their children's future earnings.

It IS HOW IT ALL WORKS - AND WE ARE TOO UNEDUCATED AND STUPID TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING.

onlinebroker

Weak documentary.
1.The value of the dollar is irrelevant, as long as oil is traded in dollars and americas banks issue the dollars, america will always be able to buy oil, on which the whole economy rests. And they are making sure oil is traded in dollars, as we saw in the past 10 years. The dollar tanked like 90% in the past 100 years, nobody cares.
Other nations with huge debt go broke precisely because of this,unlike america they do not issue the currency their debt is in.
2.The stock market does NOT crash when the dollar tanks, on the contrary, it goes up to adjust, just like gold.
3.America does NOT borrow dollars from abroad, on the contrary, it sells the dollars the banks issue out of nothing to the other nations in exchange for goods.
4.Why did they use dollar/euro to show the falling dollar with an increasing number, just make it euro/dollar and the number falls,too. Stupid.

One has to wonder if the makers and this 'economist' even know what a dollar is and where it comes from.

Foreign Currency Trader

Actually during the crisis the dollar has gone way up and will continue to rise way beyond where it currently has. During good times like the preceding 7 years to the crash the dollar value dropped approximately 43%. The dollar has gained and fallen many times in our history it is not what will cause the fall of the US. The transfer of 90% of the wealth to the rich will cause the split of the US. It started before the bailout of the rich by president Bush but that helped it a lot. Check out the tax receipts from the IRS for the last several years.

ikironisch

i agree with onlinebroker. additionally, the potentially threatening part of american debt (i.e. debts to external residents and institutions) accounts for about $1 trillion which is less than the tenth of american GDP.

Danby

To Big Dipper. The total debt load of the united states of america is 109 trillion dollars. The total assets it has including land, its military, its buildings, ect its 79 trillion dollars. The united states of america is bankrupt and will only drag out its slow lumbering death.

Eventually it will collapse and become a 3rd world country. Probably in the next few years, now that the health bill is in place.

Raya

This is depressing. And i haven't even seen the documentary yet.

HaTe_MaChInE

This is a scare-umentary. Seems will written and well made. I put this documentary in the same genre as the meter hitting the earth and wiping out life on earth. Yes it can happen and yes it will most likely happen but will we see it in our life times? Most likely not. There is an amazing amount of concern to keep the dollar stable. Besides the dozens of countries world wide that own huge amounts of dollars... many black market industries (guns, drugs, etc) have a huge stake in the dollar as well. The drug marked is estimated to be worth 300billion dollars a year and almost all drugs are traded with US dollars. 300billion is almost half of the entire GDP of the Netherlands.

I liked the story about the people on the island and it was the americans job to eat. To make the story more accurate, the american would lay claim to most of the island and develop it. Once it is developed the american would produce more food than the next 4 people on the island. Next the american would develope a technolgy market and export services based on tech to all the islanders at high prices. At this point the american decides to let the other people make his plastic toys since the american can make way more money selling services than he could making plastic toys. But now the other islanders start to get some cash because the americasn buys lots of plastic toys. What should the other islanders do... why they should buy money from the american... its a great investment. So now the islanders are depended on the american not only to buy their goods but also to give them back the money they already earned.

The national debt is 12trillion and counting... the GDP is 14trillion and counting. That means the US is in debt less then 1 years worth of work. Most people in the world are in way more then just 1 years salary debt.

The US has a HUGE industrial base... it just doesn't have a hugely profitable industrial base. The US built 8,705,239 cars in 2008. The United Kingdom build 1,649,515. In 2005, 1,283,000 new single-family houses were sold. Thats 1 house for every man woman and child that lives in Australia.

The US economy is a very VERY big ship. It wont roll over as easily as the row-boat many people make it out to be.

@Big Dipper - You are a fool and your grasp of economics is in great question. Slave - a person who is the property of and wholly subject to another; a bond servant. If you work for free its charity. If you are forced to work against your will (even if you are paid for it) it is slavery. Please don't use slavery as a shock point... its very insulting.

A bank cannot enslave me because no mater how much I owe that bank they have to trust me to pay it back. They are at my will. I can take out a loan, buy a Ferrari crash it into a tree and the bank can do little more than "adjust my credit score"

Some of the biggest devaluations of currency happened because money was based on precious metals. Say for example we base the dollar on platinum... china opens up a huge platinum mine (bad luck for us) it can then flood the market and devalue the dollar. Why buy american platinum when china platinum is cheaper. It is much better to have the people in control of the dollar to have a vested interest.

If you look at the history of american you will see that the highest every recorded inflation rates all happened when money was based off precious metal.

@onlinebroker - I do not believe the economy rests on oil. The EIA estimate shows that energy consumption as a percent of GDP was 8.4% in 2005, slightly higher than the 8.0% in 1971. There was no more recent data but it shows that energy in total is not a huge factor of the GDP and has not changed much in over 35 years. You make excellent points... I just dont think oil is as big as a factor as you make it seem.

@Danby - Where did you get these numbers? Do you even know what 3rd world means? Do you just think of a bunch of words you heard on TV, mash them together, and blither out the whole mess hoping someone might think you have a clue.

HaTe_MaChInE

I misquoted

In 2005, 1,283,000 new single-family houses were sold. Thats 1 house for every 5 people in Australia.

Nonlocality

@HaTe_MaChInE - a noteworthy illumination for those in the shadows.

Syly1212

Time to stock up on rice and beans!

Kosh

@HaTe_MaChInE - You seem to have a good head on your shoulders but, your over all concepts are a little off...and need to learn about inflation: how government printing of money is a form of inflation.(money is worth less now then it did before)

Your summary that $12 trillion is only 1 year of GDP is a misleading analysis. GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product; which is, the total of every product, service, and capital investment returns for the whole year. A more correct way to describe our debt is to look at it is. If the total revenue of the Government of the U.S.A. is between $2 an $3 trillion and the debt is $12 trillion (and rising). The government would have to spend every penny it would collect for 4 or 5 years to pay it off...

HaTe_MaChInE, "A bank cannot enslave me because no mater how much I owe that bank they have to trust me to pay it back. They are at my will."

I think that is hilarious and is just what they want you to believe. Banks what to bury every person, corporation and government in debt, by doing this they have you at their mercy. Modern day slavery (debt) is well devised rather complicated scheme. In order the pay back the money, which was created out of thin air, with exponentially growing interest you are the mercy of your employer. Your employer at the mercy of market. The market is at the mercy of government. In the end, every one and every thing in one form or an other is at the mercy of the banks...
By your own admit ion, you said, "If you are forced to work against your will (even if you are paid for it) it is slavery." I have seen a lot of messed-up things over the last year because of the huge debt that they owe (that’s continuously growing). I have seen people with 4 year collage degrees delivering pizzas, lawyers doing house cleaning, and many highly skilled people having to at Mc Donald’s, Burger King, Subway and other low wage non-skilled jobs (that can't support a family). Because they have student loans, car loans, personal loans, mortgages, credit card debt, medical debt, etc...

Maybe sometime, you should watch the documentary "The Money Masters" and a couple of videos on You Tube called Understanding Money & Banking Pt. 3 Quantity of Money and The Most IMPORTANT Video You'll Ever See (part 1 of 8)

mrwhoever

yep its worth less but u can buy more stuff than before if you organise rationnaly your wage/consuming ratio according to the different prices you find in the market (house prices for instance)... Inflation is unevenly spread, and I would say that higher wages swallow a lot of it by consuming certain (way more) inflated goods or hobbies, without talking about sitting investment stocks which are not spent on production, thereby reducing the effect of inflation from money supply increases. AND without talking about financial bubbles which, when burst, literally sweeps excess money away. The system is weird but there seems to be a kind of equilibrium in it... it is important to understand that much of money supply increases are channelled into luxury or sitting virtually (emphasis added) around bank accounts. Thus the calculation about inflation reducing the value of money in the doc fails to explain why real purchasing powers seem greater today that they were when there was no inflation (sic) ;-)

mrwhoever

the real question is to assess how can that system provide minimum descent welfare to all its "citizens". Obama has kind of acted for that qualitative requisite.

Martin Sloan

It's basically entertaining and informative enough, but I got the impression that things were left out; either through the premise being basically true but raised questions being left unanswered; or the premise has been exaggerated to the point that questions not only don't need answers but don't even need to be asked.

I think the first premise may be correct. If this is the case, then the documentary could have been made longer and therefore had the time to give a detailed history of how this situation arose and a detailed forecast of how things will pan out. Of course this means that the title of the documentary would no longer have validity.

Certainly, if you don't mind the subtitles, it is well worth watching and make your own mind up about what's going on.

george

All that hard earned bail out money which could have been used for positive agendas was given to the same people that are ripping everybody off. Wall Street. I think that the world is getting feed up for being taken as a fool by the banking institutions. The USA has Wall Street, the rest of the world has to deal with the IMF, which is much the same but with a different name. In the end, its again the middle class getting poorer. These same banking institutions own the worlds politicians.

george

All that hard earned bail out money which could have been used for positive agendas was given to the same people that are ripping everybody off. Wall Street. I think that the world is getting feed up for being taken as a fool by the banking institutions. The USA has Wall Street, the rest of the world has to deal with the IMF, which is much the same but with a different name. In the end, its again the middle class getting poorer. These same banking institutions own the worlds politicians. Time to wake up!!!!!!!!!!

pulunco

hate machine

In 2005, 1,283,000 new single-family houses were sold. Thats 1 house for every 5 people in Australia

Im sorry what do you mean by this?

John Villages

Poverty in China and other manufacturing countries subsidizes standards of living in the USA. The economy is like a gambling addict, hoping it can win it all back in the next hand

TARIQUE

If only America ends its adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tries to bring old fashioned manufacturing back from abroad and put its people to work. This situation will improve and the dollar and dignity of this great nation will prevail.

dave debt

Everyone talking about american debt to GDP listen up. Yes right now America is at 94% debt to GDP which isn't the largest as far as the ratio but is the largest in overall dollar amount. Also remember that you pay interest on that which is noted as the 4th largest Federal budget after Defense (#1 obviously), Social Security and Medicare. That means you're spending almost the same amount of money on the interest of loans you owe to yourselves (the US) and foreign debtors than health care.

with so many foreign countries owning US debt I wonder how long it will take for the Amero (north american currency) or worse yet a world currency. Boo IMF

dave debt

Also watch Oil for the next few years carefully as many scientists are agreeing on the Peak Oil theory in the process of occurring or possibly may already have happened. The process is said to start with fluctuations in extraction of oil followed by the slow decent to no oil at all. This isn't something electric cars can fix as oil is apart of the majority of materials we use everyday.

From food (fertilizer, pesticides, plastic to wrap food, trucks and boats to ship food, freezers and storage, etc) Its said that for every 1 calorie of food we consume it took 7-10 calories of oil to get it to your mouth.

if you watch some good oil documentaries you will really see how dependent are lives are by oil and what may happen when it runs out!

Big Dog Mean

The one cool thing, for bicyclist, is open highways for as far as the eye can see, unmolested large bike rides from city to city, camp out under the stars with beans and rice on some solar powered portable stove, reading a novel while waiting for sleep, start the ride early the next day. venturing into town after town. This all happens if the oil runs out of our infrastructure. No more cars. I'm not saying this is the best thing, but I found one positive.
Nice epic bike rides on temporarily smooth highways, unmolested by noisy, speedy, careless drivers. Ahhh!! (highways degrade, I know)
Oh yeah, wild life can roam across roads/highways unmolested and maybe wolves and Bison could spread east of Yellowstone/Wyoming etc. I've always hated how we land lock wild life into small breeding pools ensuring destruction/extinction as a result of weaker gene pools.
Sorry, just enjoying the imagination trickle.
Peace. We will overcome, no matter what happens. One thing for sure, our character will be tested and it will be strengthened.

julie

bigdipper:
i think you are brilliant. I hope you use your knowledge to decrease the world's ignorance and better the lives of future generations.

Miguel Cabrera

Bravo, Bravo !!!! This documentary should be televised on a major network here in the USA. In my opinion, American's do not realize how their lifestlye affects the rest of the world nation's. Education is the key for America......

Rafael Smith

hey, i looked up the national debt clock and we are making like 85 trillion or something like that so i dont understand.

NeverStopTrying

I'm sorry. What was that?

henrymart81

The problem is the big banks. Here they finally failed and while the American people were cheering their demise, the feds stole our money and handed it to them. Boycott major banks. It's the least you can do.

Matt Kukowski

Decentralize. Regulate the important core things and this will prevent corruption.

Current system is the opposite. Money is created at a central authority ( the fed ) and Wall Street is completely ( almost ) deregulated so they can gamble and corrupt Pension plans and YOUR money. ( Including your mortgages )

psychorealm11

Now that it is 2011 it is interesting to see this doc. It showed in 2005 7.9 trillion dollars debt and 2011 14 trillion. The current euro to dollar is $1.45. Like the investors said in the movie. It is all about the confidence. Are we here? I start to think that maybe the time has come for it to crash. I wonder if I should take my money out of the bank before everyone else does. This is a good doc. Thanks to the site host. Always great docs here and comments too.

i_drink_Scope

"This is a great creative time for concerened [sic] citizens who do not cling to views and ideologies but see the interdependence of all life and nations, economy and ecology, human and natural systems and work for whole system solutions that ensures well being of all people and planet."

a similar ideology and a plethora of realizable solutions is brought forth in this inspiring book:
The Ecology of Commerce, by Paul Hawken

Rob Lamb

I've got a spare bicycle in the garage - I'll sell it to one of you poor US citizens for $10,000 - Euro's please!!

Rocky Racoon

Run unsecuritized credit and declare bankruptcy-you had a good time for nothing and the bank gets nothing in return. That is just my way of getting back the interest they charge.....
RR

Rocky Racoon

the dollar is supposed to represent value. You pay 10 dollars for a commodity that has a value of ten dollars. Now how does one establish value? Value is the amount of socially necessary labur time it takes to produce a product. Why well because production has been socialized meaning generalized and inter related. It is not a farmer trading a bushel of wheat for a sack of potatoes anymore not direct exchange-the main issue here is equivalency. Now as production increases and gets more automated the less time it takes to produce a product the less value it has since capitalism sticks to measuring value by socially neccessary labour time. What happens next? Ut oh where does profit come from? Profit comes from extracting more value from labour than you pay for it the producers work for 8 hours but they produce the equivalent of their wage in the first hour they work the rest goes to the "owner" of the means of production. As technology displaces human labour value fails have to push down wages to squeeze out profit. Eventually this dynamic cannot be contained capitalism shoots itself in the foot and depression happens. They have to slaughter all old values through war for example and start the process all over again. WE have to stop the profit system and measuring value according to labour time. Production has been more or less socialized meaning integrated we have to do the same with ownership. We need to get off the dollar and go back to barter only on a national and international manner. WE need this much resources to meet this many needs. In a democracy this is determined by the people who have to do the producing since they create the value. Not going to outline a plan for the social reorganization of production and reproduction for planet earth and shouldn't have to either I mean capitalism doesn' tbelieve in planning they leave it to the "invisible hand" The invisible hand is really surplus value or profit in the profitability crisis this invisible hand has quite a slap. In a reorganized society with the productive capacity that human kind has...I mean just look at the US military and if this was devoted to human development in stead of wage slavery...what a world it would be.
Cheers,
RR

KsDevil

The bankers, wall street, and the government is trying to hold thngs in check to prevent the demize of the US dollar. However, they are fighting a constant battle as the battle itself is adding to the problem. Those with fiscal ideology appear to be rfixated in their own little world unable to break free to see what effect they are causing. Something has to give, and like the dykes of New Orleans, it ain't gonna be pretty.

petr

interesting to watch it now in 2011 - the debt is much higher and yet the awful things predicted didn't happen. Yes we had a financial meltdown but not a great depression- only a great recession and ironically at the time of the meltdown the US dollar actually gained a lot in value as investors flocked to it indicating that it was still the safest bet around. It is also true that CHina is due to become the largest economy in 2016 edging out the US and yet, it has its own problems it continually buys US $ to keep the value of the remnimbi down and hence their products competitive. IF the US deflates the value of the dollar - that will improve their exports, and ultimately devalue US treasuries held by China. China will soon have a huge aging population supported by a smaller younger workforce due to the one-child policy. There is still a huge amount of corruption. It is also interesting that in the documentary Europe seems to be in good shape - and yet no mention of the looming sovereign debt problem, which is partly due to stimulus spending in post 2008 but also to the inequality in the EU economies, such as Germany and France and Greece and Spain which have weaker economies, a vast amount (50%) of uncollected taxes, all together in a monetary union but no central govt with the powers to tax.

Amer

Bush has destroyed this country!!!(as well as others,,,if not the world!!!). And the Republicans are doing everything in their power to get in the way of recovery for nothing more than political purposes. Great!!!,,,they can rule the smoldering pile of rubble that was once the greatest country on the planet.....

yahoo-HH36YO5DPQKA3NPDWBWSHPLWKU

This doc is interesting but misses a HUGE number of points and in some respects is just plain wrong.

From the scenarios I've heard discussed, the following is worth bearing in mind;

a) The premise that everything can be played out in a day is a dramatic artifice and such a scenario would actually take weeks to play out and be far more damaging and interesting as a result.

b) Europe has nothing to worry about re. money supply, the case for cashpoints running out IN EUROPE is rubbish.

c) Anything priced in dollars will see a huge spike IN THE USA. Gas prices at the pumps will react VERY rapidly, jumping perhaps quarters at a time. There, in the usa, the immediate cost increases will be apparent. Europe is an oil producing region and sells mainly into its own market and so will see prices rise slower. While the usa can use corrupt fiscal practices, promises to open the 'u.s. strategic reserve of oil' a laughably, insignificant cup of oil, by world standards and even use muscle to price fix, this won't insulate americans against price rises for long.

d) The currency trading centres of the world, most notably London, have ALREADY tested software that can cope with rapid fluctuations as would be seen as the dollar crumbles AND, I have been informed, these markets HAVE tested software for commodity trading in currencies other than the dollar and even in gold weight equivalents. Switching over to non-u.s.dollar settlement would be almost instantaneous and the marlket could awake to it with ease. The markets would adjust quickly as they have done before AND continue to make money from the new trading.

e) The loss of the dollar would be a good thing for many nations, freeing them from the need to earn dollars to pay for their vital commodities and energy needs. Once it starts, the usa would be well advised to get out of the way or be crushed behind the door once that trend happens. The usa would find many nations positively hostile to recusitating a dying dollar... even if it might be very bad for the usa, there are only 300m americans on this planet!

f) America will fight to protect its pitiful grasp on this world and, given the advantage for many nations of a non-dollar world, will be opposed. Happily the best thing about this is that, without the world's reserve currency, the usa will have to ACTUALLY pay for wars it fights and so will be unable to oppose the changeover.

g) Americans won't wnt to hear this BUT the usa will be the major victim of a replacement of the u.s.dollar as the world's reserve currency. Despite people trying to say that "usa goes down everyone doomed" this WILL NOT BE THE CASE. The Euro, Rouble, Yuan, Yen, Sterling plus India or Brazil will make the new one. The usa will suffer mainly alone. World will go on! We did before!

There are a few more issues involving the destruction of u.s. treasuries and their necessary conversion into land, assets in continental usa and perhaps even using blocks of american taxpayers as surety but those will be sorted out by people far more ruthless and clever than me...

Good doc but flawed. The reality will be far more amusing and interesting... unless you are an american, in which case they'll be truly horrifying!

2bRAINZY

Wow! Yes this could very likely happen, however as someone's comment pointed out not all in one day. Perhaps a week to a month as MANY countries will do almost anything they can to prevent this scenario. However once they realize the inevitable, they will eventually do what is necessary to salvage their own economies. I think one thing not taken into consideration is the psychology of non-U.S. countries, many of whom would love to have the American burden off of their backs as well as some countries would like to see wasteful America finally get it's due. With America out of the game, yet other countries would like to gain an edge in a newly re-shuffled world deck. i need only remind people of the sort of hood will that most countries had for the U.S. after 9/11 and how that quickly changed once Mr. Bush decided to invade and occupy other countries, forcing many of our allies to also commit to this injustice because...well they're allies and their hands are bassically tied. The rest of the world isn't st*pid, they could see EXACTLY what was going on unlike many Americans. DO NO think this has all been forgotten and/or forgiven. From the docunentary two things stand out. China will probably in the most advantageous position, and our so called Middle East (read:oil producing) friends will quickly convert from dollar to Euro as this was actually attempted before.

Paul McGuire

You are using my book cover for The Day the Dollar Died and you have cut off my name from the bottom of the book cover which is copyrighted. Paul McGuire author of The Day the Dollar Died. Please demonstrate integrity and do the right thing.

Thank you.

Paul McGuire

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

3rd world=countries not alligned with nato or russia, countries staying neutral, like switzerland and mexico. Mexico is 3rd world, but has everything, roads,schools,hospitals, airports, cars, factories, farms, you name it, mexico has it.....one of the richest man on the planet happens to be mexican. so it doesn't matter if the U.S. becomes 3rd world.

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

modern slave= your wages pays for the basics, housing, food and clothing, but you can't afford anything extra, e.g. medical care, education, entertainment, ect......in my opionion most american are not slaves yet.

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

the us has more land under cultuvation than any other country on the planet, china buys our coal and our food, and we buy their labor (factory made goods). never mind the dollar which is smoke and mirrors, the trade is in the resources, our food for their labor.

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

what if the us defaulted on the loan, wouldn't the evil bankers have to accept new terms if they wanted to see any of their money?, didn't other countries not pay on their loans. that their loans were "forgiven".

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

you forget how wealthy the US is. to me wealth is the percentage of farmers to nonfarmers, eg..labor surplus... Africa, has 50% farmers, that is 1 out of 2 people produce the food for the whole country..the US is 3% farmers, that is 3 out of 100 people produce the food to feed the country, so africa has 1 person to do all nonagricultural work, and the US has 97 people available to do all nonagricultural work, thus we have tons of specialist/occupations. That's our wealth. All those people who don't have to grow their own food.

Devon Griffiths

Yes but it depends entirely on foreign oil imports. It's not actually wealth that is being generated in the country, it's wealth that is being imported at a price. Take away cheap oil imports and the US will need at least 50% of the population to maintain food production, and it will have to somehow find more arable land even if it can somehow organize such a workforce, because the land under cultivation is pretty much maxed out and efficiency would drop (and forget square foot gardening as a solution, because that depends on buying artificially fertilized soil, which requires lots of oil to produce). If the petrodollar collapses, those oil imports will almost certainly dry up. The "smoke and mirrors" of the petrodollar is the only thing keeping the US afloat right now.

skibee

more like the federal reserve cartel system.....
they control economics & our monetary system...
it sure isn't anything we're doing.....research..

skibee

so where do u hail from ?

i'm very aware ..that what u say is true ~

the federal reserve cartel system is trying it's

best to get'r done- before these ol' rockefellars, soros,, etc. die

before seeing their NWO completely put in place

skibee

china & japan are already trading "their" money amongst

theirselves......and meeting w/other countries bout a new

world reserve currency.....

skibee

why is it that all these mexicans want to leave their country,
if it's so great ??

no, it wouldn't matter to someone who isn't FROM here,,,,,,,,,,,,

Alma Elizabeth Vasquez Jr

you mean horse drawn wooden wagon loaded with cargo would fill the roads. and alot of cities would be ghost towns, people would have to move to where the food is grown. trains wood survive, burning wood. and alot of farms would be abandoned, turning into forest. and there would be alot of famine of course.

TheDanishViking

If the US goes down, the EU is going down too. What I find so frustrating is that Americans never consider the one thing that could prevent this: pay tax Americans! Just like the rest of the rich world you have to pay your taxes!!!

Phillip Poggi

Well,we all DO pay our taxes because we have to or the IRS comes after us. Our politicians have to put in place fair balanced NEW taxes that bring in enough revenue to pay for our budget every year, rather than not bringing in enough revenue and forcing the government to issue interest bearing bonds which are ultimately up to the American people to pay through taxes in the future. It's a tough balancing act in itself and with a congress that is gridlocked it's near impossible to fix at all. Fingers crossed!

awful_truth

Although this documentary is over 10 years old, it's position is bang on! The most profound moment is the questioning of stock brokers on Wall St, after 9 11, with all of them stating they had no worries regarding the stability of the economy. Since the last great crash of 1929, all the people that experienced it's stark reality are basically dead, so no one today can fathom global market failure, since they have never experienced it. Even if they do see it's inevitability, they ignore reality, and cling to the perception of reality instead, (confidence in the markets) in a hope to prevent further decline.
When it all actually happens, (and it will) people will be forced to acknowledge that we are merely animals, as will be our response. So, the longer we wait to correct the inequity, the more drastic the solution will be. (pay a little now, or pay greatly later) Since most people are only thinking of themselves, hoping it won't be in their lifetime, you have to wonder why they insist on having more children to pay the future tab. (intergenerational tyranny, or love?)
(Trooper - we're her for a good time, not a long time, so have a good time, the sun can't shine everyday) Any questions?